Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

The best way to fight poverty is for government to encourage and enable businesses that can pay their employees a living wage. Ahem, manufacturing...

 

Handouts don't work. They are idiot compassion. Absolutely nothing wrong with that as I don't mind giving a panhandler a buck of two so he can buy some wine or lottery tickets to at least get a fleeting moment of temporary happiness.

Lots of job positions cannot be filled right now. This is because the government is giving people $3600-$3800 a month for sitting on their asses. Yes, I get that there are people in a tough spot because some teachers refuse to return to work and thus people need to stay at home for young kids. But there are also a lot of bums.

What government needs to do is stop enabling bums, and reward people who work hard. I know at least two people who work two jobs here in TX. (Stuff like leave work at 4:30pm and go to the other job until 10:30pm.) One for taking care of their kids and the other for their parent. I'm like holy shit... That's amazing. They carry this burden out of the joy of serving others. These are the people government should help.

What about this: no taxes on anything earned after 8 hours of work per day for hourly workers?

 

Eliminating poverty is not possible and against the laws of the universe - unless one wants to go Pol Pot or Mao's Cultural Confusion.

Human existence by definition entails some level of suffering, greater or some, less for others. There are certain problems that cannot be fixed. There's a reason why the folks on those Home Makeover shows go bankrupt a year later. Even Bill Gates thinks it's such a bad bet that he won't bother helping domestic poor but rather concentrate on toilets and clean water in Africa.

Note poverty rate is a little bit higher than Germany than in the USA.

It's easier to escape poverty in the USA than any other country. The class system isn't so stratified. This is why Koreans immigrate here and work their asses off. This is why Mexicans cross the border and work their asses off. This is why Americans, who have the gumption, and there are still plenty of them, work their asses off. This is why my dad moved us from Taiwan to Canada to the USA. Four of us lived in a shitty two bedroom apartment, the kind with the shaggy green carpet, in Sunnyvale, when we first arrived.

 

You are still living four years ago. The wind is blowing the other way now. I thought if anyone was going to do it, it would have been Obama, in his first term, first Congress. Remember the whole "redistribution" thing during the debates vs. McCain?

Obviously the folks who funded Obama convinced him not to reverse the tax breaks for the rich enacted during the W era. Hey, at least Biden is doing what Obama promised, and people for the most part are behind him. I admire Biden for having the balls that Obama didn't have. Heck, Biden and Congress even partially enacted Andrew Yang's universal income idea, at least for people with kids.

Kanye and other billionaires got ripped for taking millions and milions in PPP loans handouts. As I said, the wind is blowing the other way now. I'm somewhat surprised it took this long.

 

In Taiwan, poverty has almost been eradicated like polio. I'm dead serious. The solution is very much cultural, i.e. "families must take care of their own or your name will be shamed", "do not let the village idiot wander the streets aimlessly because this brings shame to the village", "take care of your aging parents or everyone will think you are an anus", etc. These cultural values and attitudes of course impact government policy.

I can't see this happening the USA.

The USA has a much more heterogeneous population than countries like Taiwan or Norway, also another country with a low poverty rate. There is not as much feeling as "we're all in the boat" and more every man, woman, and child for themselves. Norway is awaiting the day when their oil and gas wealth runs out. Taiwan is awaiting the day when China launches missiles as a prelude to invasion.

The USA is also more competitive, more based on meritocracy than egalitarian principles. This has both benefits and drawbacks:

It's not only easier to escape poverty in the USA. It's also much easier to be successful and climb the ladder. In the 60s and 70s, Taiwan was a very poor country. My dad was dirt poor: the I walked 6 km to school - with no shoes story. Or when he was able to afford shoes, he didn't want to wear them because that would have made him stand out because other kids didn't have any.

But he had the brains and was able to go Georgia Tech for a post-graduate education. He worked as a engineer in Toronto for a while then moved the family to the USA, to Silicon Valley where Racal Vadic was pushing the boundaries with modems (ooooh 1200 baud). No chance in hell he would have been as successful in Taiwan. Probably the same deal with my good friend @ultrabike, also a signals engineer like my dad, except he's the Mexican version today.

From a immigrant's point of it, it easy to go from zero to a something, a good something, in one third of a lifetime in the USA. Others sacrifice themselves for their kids, so they can get a good education or learn a trade, so they can move ahead. Many immigrants when they see people on the streets think: What the F is wrong with you? Seriously, when I was back in El Lay, my Sri Lankan friend and I as we drove out to lunch would shake our heads. Being poor or out on the street in the USA is utterly unfathomable for anyone from a poor immigrant family who sold all their belongings to immigrate here.

Getting back to the cultural aspects - these events were years ago when money was tighter - examples of differences:

I was planning a family trip to Taiwan. My folks in Taiwan (mother's side) are very well off. Put it this way: my cousins were never extravagant, but they never had to work like me. Plane tickets and lodging for a family of four aren't exact cheap. Knowing that I was a working stiff and had a young family to take care of, and quite excited that we were visiting from so far away, they (meaning several of my uncles and aunts) foot the entire bill. To do any less would have been an embarrassment on their part.

My cousin, driving his small BMW SUV hit two girls on a moped. This was in Taiwan. It was the girls' fault. However, he settled with the girls on paying part of the bill for their injuries (broken leg) simply because he had more means. For more wealthy people, this is often the better course of action than saying F you, it's your fault - because you don't want the girls' parents, boyfriends or whoever to come knocking on your door with a crowbar.

In-laws were planning a get together as Disney. I'm like F this shit, kids would have preferred Universal. But hey, it's family, And my wife's brother's family was TOTALLY in Disney - so I'm just F'd. We had to negotiate down to an acceptable hotel "world" or whatever at Disney World so we could all be together, buy a meal plan, and only pay for three days of fun park instead of the four that everyone else got. Do you think we got any help? This despite her brother's wife being a physician, maybe possibly getting millions once she sold her equity in the practice (they offered this tidbit of info), and he always talking about his private equity into Uber, or how family is the most important thing in the world, etc. Do I fault my brother in-law? Nope, not at all. It's the American way.

A new element that leads to poverty in the USA: Healthcare.

The problem with healthcare in the USA is cost. It's not availability. Oh, it's available. It's cost. The reason it's so expensive is because people do not want to die or call it quits when it's time. Maybe once upon a time they knew, like John Wayne in the Shootist. But Americans cannot stand to lose lost causes and will do anything possible to beat them, including travelling to the end of the world. We can't allow stuff like heart lung transplants if we want affordable insurance.

LOL, the organ donation rate in Taiwan is downright abysmal. My dad has even said: screw that. I'd rather die than get an organ transplant. Besides, getting a matching organ is downright impossible. Attitudes like this however do wonders for keeping the cost of health insurance down. Also Taiwanese eat a ton of leafy greens. I recall my grandmother making at least 22 different kinds of greens growing up. In USA, it's lettuce (does not count really), spinach, and cabbage. In the South, we get more: collard and mustard greens. Maybe add kale and chard. Pretty sure greens with limited portions of meat works better than sugar, fat, and Lipitor when it comes to all sorts of old people diseases.

Yes, maybe we can eliminate poverty in the USA if there were more people like you, me, @rhythmdevils, @crenca, @zerodeefex, heck most if not all SBAF members, where those in positions of having more, freely give. However, this ain't the case. Last time I checked Gates Foundation coffers, they were pretty tight with their money. Buffet likes to talk the talk (about this secretary being taxed more than he), but is happy keeping it all to himself. (Secret: those guys are so internally poor).